Chad Clark's Open Journal : 2006-05-02

1) This post claims that caffeine makes people more likely to be persuaded.

http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s1627382.htm


2) A picture of porcupine babies.


(From http://www.apostropher.com/blog/img/porcupinebabies.JPG)


3) Ever wonder what a banana tree looks like?


(http://www.princeton.edu/~jhalderm/pics/2000-08=bermuda/banana.html)


4) "Eyetracking visualizations show that users often read Web pages in an
F-shaped pattern: two horizontal stripes followed by a vertical stripe."

I imagine the marketing people are getting a bit excited and are working on
figure out how to make money from this.

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/reading_pattern.html




5) 59 ingredients in a fast-food strawberry milkshake and not one of them is strawberries.

The post also states "About 20% of American children between the ages of
one and two drink soft drinks every day."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/food/Story/0,,1759910,00.html

The main ingredients are:

  milkfat and nonfat milk, sugar, sweet whey, high-fructose corn syrup, guar
  gum, monoglycerides and diglycerides, cellulose gum, sodium phosphate,
  carrageenan, citric acid, E129 and artificial strawberry flavour

The "artificial strawberry flavour" contains:

  amyl acetate, amyl butyrate, amyl valerate, anethol, anisyl formate, benzyl
  acetate, benzyl isobutyrate, butyric acid, cinnamyl isobutyrate, cinnamyl
  valerate, cognac essential oil, diacetyl, dipropyl ketone, ethyl butyrate,
  ethyl cinnamate, ethyl heptanoate, ethyl heptylate, ethyl lactate, ethyl
  methylphenylglycidate, ethyl nitrate, ethyl propionate, ethyl valerate,
  heliotropin, hydroxyphrenyl- 2-butanone (10% solution in alcohol), ionone,
  isobutyl anthranilate, isobutyl butyrate, lemon essential oil, maltol,
  4-methylacetophenone, methyl anthranilate, methyl benzoate, methyl
  cinnamate, methyl heptine carbonate, methyl naphthyl ketone, methyl
  salicylate, mint essential oil, neroli essential oil, nerolin, neryl
  isobutyrate, orris butter, phenethyl alcohol, rose, rum ether,
  undecalactone, vanillin and solvent.